Taking place annually in the capital of conservative Texas, the South by Southwest festival is a growing celebration of the state’s rise as a technology hub that is emerging from Silicon Valley’s shadow.
Originally started as a music festival in 1987, the huge, counter-cultural conference has always been somewhat of a Texas outlier, much like its home city, Austin, a liberal haven in the center of a state famed for its oil rigs, enormous sky, and cowboy hats.
The festival, which runs through Saturday, has grown into a jumble of media, comedy, film, cultural, and professional events, but none are more relevant to Austin’s current culture than those that focus on technology.
Long home to a thriving tech scene, recent years have seen the city inundated with Silicon Valley types, turbocharging the quirky capital’s bro element and billionaire contingent.
Joe Rogan, a comedian and podcaster from Austin, is one of the former. He interviews several of the nation’s largest tech companies for his very male show.
Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla magnate who has established the Lone Star state as his de facto headquarters, is the most powerful billionaire.
Although Musk frequently appears on Rogan’s podcast, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta also stopped by his studio to voice his displeasure with the lack of machismo among his liberal coast employees.
“The Californians I know who moved to Texas are even extra Texan marinated in Texas sauce,” Musk wrote on X in November.
“For the love of God, please don’t let Texas become California,” he added.
The robust corporate culture in Austin is the foundation of the city’s tech boom.
Texas offers a plenty of flat land, excellent cities based on the oil and gas sector, little regulations, and extremely low taxes.
“When you are thinking about setting up a new factory, a new data center, what is it that we have here? We have the space to grow at a lower cost than you can find in more densely developed areas of the country,” said Paul Cherukuri, Rice University’s vice president for innovation.
